Sad and leaning fence...

Did I mention that we've had rain?  Lots and lots of rain?  And with the rain we have also had high, blustery winds.  It finally proved too much for the fence along our deck.  Lee could see the fence weaving back and forth one night, and the next day we found this:

Not nice!!  Our neighbor had propped it up from his side, but to no avail.  Now we are waiting for a fence guy to come out and fix it - hopefully without having to start over and detach all of our very happy vines - we'll keep you posted.

Our new bird house...

Gary and Joyce gave us this adorable bird house for Christmas!  We have bird houses on the top of all of the posts in the garden - except this one!    Now it has a great bird house, too  We're watching to see who moves in thee!

Thanks, Gary and Joyce!  We love our new bird house!

Lee, affixing the bird house to the post so the wind doesn't topple it

All attached and ready for birds to move in and raise a family!

A close up shot

Sean's visit

When we saw Sean at Christmas, he asked if he could come and visit us during his spring break this year, and of course, we said YES!!  Sean visited at this time last year, too, and we had a great time.  He was looking forward to some of that California sunshine!

Unfortunately, California had very little sunshine during his stay - we mostly had rain, rain and more rain!  The weather was actually better than predicted, and we had a couple of days where we were able to be outside, going and doing things.  You can't let the rain stop you, and we had a great time.

Sean arrived on Sunday evening, so we had Monday through Saturday to sight-see, shop, take in some entertainment, eat sushi and visit with Jon, Sue and Jacob.  The time went really quickly, but we made the most of it!

Thanks for visiting, Sean!  We had a great time!

Monday - after several hours of quality time with his computer, Sean thought that a walk to the beach was in order!  We totally agreed!  Here's Sean, at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve - lots of wave action!

Even though it wasn't quite the weather for shorts, the sunshine was all the excuse Sean needed to pretend!

After the reserve, we walked up to the lighthouse - one of our favorite spots

Sean is very brave - he clambered all over the rocks and cliffs

Sean and the sea - there were lots of crashing waves

Down on the rocks - I thought for sure that he was going to get wet - but he didn't!

On Tuesday we went into San Francisco and spent some time at the Hyde Street Pier.  The rain was supposed to hold off till about 2 pm, so we grabbed umbrellas and off we went.  We toured the three boats you see - the three masted ship, the tug and the Eureka, a car ferry

The rigging on the ship, with the car ferry to the left

Sean at the wheel.  Wouldn't you think that the wheel would be in some kind of an enclosure?

The crew bunks

Pier 39, with Alcatraz in the background

Yes, there was a bit of a breeze!

Pier 39

Sean, with the mural of the whale, painted on the parking garage

Leisure time!

Breakfast of champions!  French toast and whipped cream!

On Wednesday we went to the California Academy of Sciences.  They have great exhibits there, including a rain forest, planetarium and aquarium.  That's the skeleton of a blue whale over Sean's head - it's the largest mammal on the planet

Sean and Grandpa on the roof of the Academy.  The De Young Art Museum is in the background

Sean at the California Academy of Sciences

Grandma and Sean

Thursday evening we went to the Cirque du Soleil - Quidam!  It was Sean's first Cirque experience and he said that it was AWESOME!!  The show was held at HP Pavilion, also known as the Shark Tank, so we had dinner at Amici's, our traditional pre-hockey game restaurant.

On Saturday we went to Richmond to visit with Jon, Sue and Jacob.  Sean enjoyed playing "tug of war" with Annie, their border collie

Sean and Jacob

Jon, Sean and Jacob

Lee, Jon, Sean, Jacob, Sue and Annie

Same as above, but with Pat instead of Sue

So, this morning the alarm went off at 4:30 am, as Sean had a 7:00 am flight.  He got home safely, and I'm sure that he will sleep well tonight!  School tomorrow.....

We love spring break!

Spring brings daffodils to Filoli

Shortly after we returned home from New Zealand, we went to Filoli.  Spring time is wonderful at Filoli when everything comes back to life in the gardens.  The daffodils are early bloomers and we didn't want to miss them.  It was only early March but there were lots of different blossoms about.
 
So how many different types of daffodils are there?  We found the six below but I'm sure there must be many more.

This double blossom was really interesting.

A beautiful arrangement of daffodils and greenery.

One of the daffodil fields in bloom.

And this field was not as weather protected so was just starting to bloom.

 

There were tulip trees

And the camellias were just beginning to bloom,

As well as the tulips.

Does anyone know what this blossom/flower is?  Very different and intricate.  We never did find out.

Spring time is an amazing sight at Filoli!

Our last day in Auckland

After Queenstown, we spent two days with Craig and Stephen in Auckland before our flight home on Wednesday.

On Tuesday the sun was shining and the city beckoned, so we walked into town.  Auckland is a beautiful city, located on the harbor, it's called the "city of sails".  It reminds me a bit of San Francisco in that respect, without all those pesky hills!

We enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city, everyone out and about on their lunch hour.  Auckland does a neat thing with cross walks - traffic is stopped entirely, and people cross in every which way - the intersections are literally filled with people - it's a hoot!

We enjoyed looking at all of the multi-million dollar yachts moored there, many of them for sale.  We spotted a sail boat from Santa Cruz, CA!  The people were on board, so Lee called to them, and asked them if they had sailed there.  They hadn't, they had sent their sailboat over on a container ship, as they had emigrated to New Zealand 7 years ago.  They are now living in north of Auckland, raising cattle and basset hounds!

We had a wonderful lunch at the marina at a Japanese restaurant, sushi and Kirin beer!  It was lovely to sit outside, and watch the world go by.

We also saw the New Zealand sail boat that sailed in one of the Americas Cup races - KZ1 - the height of it's mast was amazing!

After lunch we walked back to Craig and Stephens.  Our last evening there was spent with them, Deane and Tony and Marilyn and David.  We had a wonderful bar-b-que, and drank a toast to AGP 20, which is when we'll see all of them again.

Another wonderful New Zealand sojourn!

Pedestrians crossing in all directions

KZ - 1

 

Masts galore on these amazing yachts

This one was all made from teak

The view at lunch

Wind powered moving harbor sculpture with the Sky tower in the background